1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to recording/playback apparatuses and recording/playback control methods, and more particularly, to a recording/playback apparatus and a recording/playback control method that are suitable for recording and playing back digital television broadcasts.
2. Description of the Related Art
A set-top box (STB) is used for receiving digital television broadcasts and for outputting the received digital audiovisual data as analog data. It has been proposed that an STB be equipped with a hard disk drive as a digital recording medium so as to record the received digital audiovisual data.
In digital television broadcasting, services are provided for transmitting information concerning broadcast programs in transport stream packets. The broadcast program information can be used for, for example, an electronic program guide (EPG).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-285576 discloses a broadcast-information recording apparatus for making reservations for recording programs by comparing EPG data with user's favorite data and for managing data to be recorded on exchangeable recording media such that a similar type of data is recorded in the same recording medium.
When the capacity of a hard disk, which is a solid storage medium, is running short, unnecessary data must be erased to ensure a space. In this case, if a detachable storage medium, for example, a digital video home system (VHS) or a digital versatile disk-RAM (DVD-RAM), is connected, together with a hard disk drive, to an STB, the stored information can be moved from the hard disk to the detachable storage medium if necessary. Then, the capacity of the hard disk can be ensured.
In a known recording apparatus, however, a complicated operation is required for rearranging programs stored in the hard disk according to the types of programs and for moving the rearranged programs to a plurality of detachable storage media.